Valenzuela City Rep. Eric Martinez wants idle government lots as sites for socialized housing projects and recommended to the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development to look at several unused lots owned by the state for them.
He suggested to DHSUD to prioritize the awarding of the government housing projects to public school teachers, healthcare workers or medical frontliners, uniformed personnel, and other state workers.
During the deliberation of the House committee on appropriations for the DHSUD’s proposed budget for 2023 amounting to P4.029 billion, Martinez asked Housing chief Jose Rizalino “Jerry” I. Acuzar about the agency’s projected number of housing units to be constructed next year.
Acuzar said for the next six years or under the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., DHSUD intends to construct six million housing units or one million housing units per year.
Martinez then implored the DHSUD secretary to give the breakdown of the one million housing units that the agency would put up in the first year of the Marcos administration, particularly for the National Capital Region.
According to Acuzar, under their next year’s budget, there are around 500,000 residential units allocated for NCR, and the rest of the targeted one million housing would be for other regions in the country.
Martinez then relayed to the housing department about the property of the Department of Information and Communications Technology that has been idle for many years.
“It would just take the imprimatur of the President… and other agencies would follow suit. If the priority is housing, let us build on idle lots. Please look into it, the idle lot of DICT in Barangay Karuhatan as a possible high-rise (housing) that could cater to our Valenzuelanos,” he said.
Under the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for fiscal year 2023, DHSUD would receive a total of P4.029 billion, 48 percent lower than its current budget of P7.67 billion.